BBKA ADM Propositions

[Stiffy]

Any resolutions passed by the BBKA have no lawful meaning can be safely ignored. At best they are simply recommendations of an organisation's thoughts.

and we all know what thought did!!

 

[Uncle Betty]

Beekeepers... 2 hive owners and all... need to take on board Bee Improvement and Bee Breeding, and perhaps alter the ... gotta have 2 brood chambers full of bees before 1st June!.... import ... import.... all for 9lbs of honey!!!

The UK has the capability of producing enough bees and queens of good quality, just needs the existing breeders to step up to the mark!

I am not a member of Devon BKA

Yeghes da

Indeed.

Too many a la carte beekeepers, unwilling to learn the craft.

Beekeping as superficial dinner party blather, to suit the instant gratification times we live in.

I've been to Devon.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

How has this situation arrived?
It wasn't due to any restrictions, rather the opposite.
For a sustainable future we should look to ourselves imho

Many bee breeders in the UK produce very good quality stock.... there needs to be some form of distinction between bee breeders and bee importers!!

All the time you are bringing in cart loads of foreign bees that are not adapted or suited to the UK climate and quite definitely do not belong here you are destroying work carried out by those dedicated to bee improvement.
I am not convinced that the Germans have got it right with their program of uniformity.
Destroying what little we have left of UK populations of Amm is not the way forward.

Yeghes da

I am not convinced that the Germans have got it right with their program of uniformity.

They tried that before - didn't work in the 1940's why should it now

With regard to the cart before the horse thing a positive approach would be to offer grants for queen rearing purposes, both for equipment and time/skill.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Sorry MBC I did not make my point clearly enough. I am trying with some of my colleagues to weed out nasty bees in this area. We are hoping to import queens from within the EU

Why not just import from other parts of the UK then

I have imported a few queens from the next county - really gentle, prolific bees and good honey producers.
They're not F*ckblasts either.

 

[Uncle Betty]

People would just say thats asking someone else to subsidize your hobby,

Some people would say that, especially if they have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

Other people might say that it is just as desirable or worthwhile as e.g. 0% VAT on books, or tax rebates for educational courses undertaken.

All normative judgements.

 

[Uncle Betty]

How has this situation arrived?
It wasn't due to any restrictions, rather the opposite.
For a sustainable future we should look to ourselves imho

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I've been to Devon.

 

[For want of a better word]

As ITLD has explained several times, it is not possible to mate queens in sufficient numbers early enough in the season
Personally, I don't start grafting until the start of May because the drones are not available/mature

Why do beekeepers have to have bees early in the season?

We have to change the way we keep bees on these islands...

Average ( 2 hive owners) beekeepers returned 9lbs of honey per colony .. as reported in BBKA Comic... in Southern England ( Does that include Devon?)
Many also report winter colony losses... and many blindly requeen every 2 seasons ... needed or not!

My guess is that due to incompetence of the beekeeper or "wrong breed of bees" colonies do not survive the Winter and need replacements.
I do not believe that Beefarmers colony losses would make for a sustainable
business... exceptions occur.. was it Quince? Devon Somerset that had devastating losses some years back???

I want to be part of the solution ... not the problem..... I can only see the way forward is through Bee Improvement and Bee Breeding programmes...
There is probably an Association that promotes this !

Yeghes da

 

[madasafish]

Do it then.

I was being ironic..

 

[Stiffy]

Indeed.


I've been to Devon.

Yep, been there too and didn't like it but have to pass through when I go into and out of England.
S

PS you can tell when its winter on this forum, the same old bxxks gets resurrected year after year and the same few bite

 

[For want of a better word]

Yep, been there too and didn't like it but have to pass through when I go into and out of England.
S

PS you can tell when its winter on this forum, the same old bxxks gets resurrected year after year and the same few bite

Bloomin cold in the new shed!

Yeghes da

 

[B+.]

Why do beekeepers have to have bees early in the season?

Because that's what they want. There's little point in getting a queen so late that all you can do is feed the colony with syrup (because they've missed the main nectar flow) and hope they survive the winter.

We have to change the way we keep bees on these islands...

Is this your vision of beekeeping in this country? Forcing people to change so they can conform to your idea of heaven.

Average ( 2 hive owners) beekeepers returned 9lbs of honey per colony .. as reported in BBKA Comic... in Southern England ( Does that include Devon?)
Many also report winter colony losses... and many blindly requeen every 2 seasons ... needed or not!

This level of "beekeeping" is not sustainable. Who can afford to keep needy bees that produce so little? Some of us actually want to harvest honey from our bees. My bees are productive, gentle and healthy (https://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/album.php?albumid=751&pictureid=3832). They don't swarm at the drop of a hat or fall victim to every disease that's going. If yours could do the same, we wouldn't be having this discussion. You'd accept ITLDs offer of an impartial test.

My guess is that due to incompetence of the beekeeper or "wrong breed of bees" colonies do not survive the Winter and need replacements.

I agree. Too many believe BBKA b.s and BIBBA propaganda. They think "local" bees means only what they can rear themselves from mongrel stock and no thought given to drones.

 

[madasafish]

If you really want to improve local UK beestock by internal breeding, then you need to control the local bee population. To do that, you need to control beekeepers. To do that you need licensing.

Ain't going to happen unless you want to pay for it as I cannot see any government of any political hue ploughing money into beekeeping when there are so many other worthy causes.

 

[Beefriendly]

Destroying what little we have left of UK populations of Amm is not the way forward.

No-one is destroying the few remaining populations of Ammish type bees. Just the opposite, they have protected status on Colonsay and Oronsay, imports to IofMann banned (still no varroa), NI Galtee Amm breeding program; a new reserve for Cornish Amm's in your neck of the woods, new breeding site somewhere in England etc etc. Amm's have never had it so good. Shame they don't perform as well as many beekeepers would like.
Its the dominant mongrel population that is the major problem. Depending on your locality, is often aggressive and a useless honey gatherer to boot. Or at least it is in my area. I have no intention of setting off on another 5 year useless breeding exercise that ends up back at the same starting point as it started from. Mongrels do not breed true and with no control over drones forget it, peeing up a stick at least produces a known result.
If you want guaranteed (as much as temper can be guaranteed) and decent yields of honey then imports of known gentle queens is the way forward and is totally sustainable.
At £35 quid a queen it's hardly expensive, about 7 jars of honey, a mere fraction of ones harvest from these designer honey gatherers. Of course you need to choose your breeder with care....and if you hate imports get them from HM.

 

[mbc]

People would just say thats asking someone else to subsidize your hobby,

I was thinking more along the lines of grants to associations and/or groups rather than individuals.

 

[Brian Bush]

If you really want to improve local UK beestock by internal breeding, then you need to control the local bee population. To do that, you need to control beekeepers. To do that you need licensing.

Ain't going to happen unless you want to pay for it as I cannot see any government of any political hue ploughing money into beekeeping when there are so many other worthy causes.

On the subject of funding whilst we are still members of the EU a subsidy per hive is paid to FERA. In the UK this contributes towards the Inspectorate. If all beekeepers recorded their hives on the NBU website this funding would increase considerably and we might have funds for R&D. In one of the EU countries, I believe it was Slovenia the EU subsidy was paid directly to Beekeepers. The result the following year was that the number of beekeepers and hives almost doubled and the figures were verifiable. In a 'rich' country like the UK a small subsidy would probably not be an incentive so we need to have a licencing system to ensure all hives are recorded and the finances increase. Even after Brexit we could have reasonable confidence that this is one agricultural subsidy that will be maintained.

 

[justsmith]

I was thinking more along the lines of grants to associations and/or groups rather than individuals.

Personaly i would like it if they paid or subsidize somone to do istrumental insemination in each area, if the main goal is to improve bee stock.

 

[B+.]

Personaly i would like it if they paid or subsidize somone to do istrumental insemination in each area, if the main goal is to improve bee stock.

Like this?
http://www.theabk.com.au/articles/2016/8/4/queen-insemination-in-germany

 

[madasafish]

On the subject of funding whilst we are still members of the EU a subsidy per hive is paid to FERA. In the UK this contributes towards the Inspectorate. If all beekeepers recorded their hives on the NBU website this funding would increase considerably and we might have funds for R&D. In one of the EU countries, I believe it was Slovenia the EU subsidy was paid directly to Beekeepers. The result the following year was that the number of beekeepers and hives almost doubled and the figures were verifiable. In a 'rich' country like the UK a small subsidy would probably not be an incentive so we need to have a licencing system to ensure all hives are recorded and the finances increase. Even after Brexit we could have reasonable confidence that this is one agricultural subsidy that will be maintained.

After Brexit, the UK farming industry is going to see subsidies cut as the UK Government will not be able to afford EC level subsidies. Beekeepers pay nothing for the NBI/Bee Inspectorate. I can see a new Government coming to look at the numbers and squeeze the subsidies for bees. Problem is: if you tax beekeepers to pay for them, they will officially stop beekeeping and revenues will not happen..

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Even after Brexit we could have reasonable confidence that this is one agricultural subsidy that will be maintained.

dream on!